Battleship Sinks With $25 Million Opening Weekend

Battleship was torpedoed, capsized, and drowned this weekend by The Avengers, still going strong into their third week. Pulling in just $25 million, the “enjoyably terrible” sci-fi flick — starring first-timer Rihanna and John Carter casualty Taylor Kitsch — was momentarily in danger of losing money until brisk overseas earnings made up the difference. Sacha Baron Cohen’s somewhat poorly received (though not by Vulture) The Dictator fared little better. As for Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows, it was down almost 60 percent from its opening weekend, but still doing $2 million better than A-list grab bag What to Expect When You’re Expecting.